After a look around the madina where we ran into a very well spoken salesman, had a look in an old medersa for training muslim sheikhs, a peruse through a museum and a treck through the souks we had a quick bit of kefta (flavoured mince balls) and salad for lunch and went to the train station.
The train was retard 1 hour so we had time for some mint tea and a chat to a very friendly local before hopping on the train.
Caught a grand taxi to our riad in the medina which Lisa had booked some time before. Carved sacko walls, painted ceilings, marble, roof top balcony with a view of fes, kitchen ,bathroom (with hot) and our own hamam. It was amazing!
Headed out to have alook at the town and had dinner at Restaurant Kasbah. We were up on the top balcony which had a great view of the hustle and bustle without the noise as well as a view of the old medina gate. After tea I tried to find this pumping little coffee bar I had briefly seen in a back street on the walk to the old gate but in labrynth of tight little winding streets it wasnt to be./ Maybe tomorrow. On the way home we bought some ingredients and had an attempt at our own mint tea but greg put way too much tea in and it was very strong. Introduced Dom and Lisa to 7's which Dom really took to and Lisa was having a sweet (suit) time!
Early start breakfast on our rooftop. More tea (better attempt), coffee, bananas, tomato and bread. Our guide for the day arrived at 930 and right off the bat there were already hidden costs. We were quoted 200 for the day but when he turned up he had organised a driver for an extra 300. We agreed which was probably for the best as it meant we had a look around the whole town, the palace, the fort which had a great view of all of Fes and also took us to the ceramic factory on the outskirts of town where we got to see tiles, pottery and mosics being made. Then into medina where we saw the dyers souk, tanneries, carpets, scarves, jelubas etc. Unfortunately for our guide, who im sure was hoping for commision, we didnt buy anything.
This may be because we have not been shopping that much but we are already hearing all the same sales pitches. Its always "first customer of the day - very lucky". Carpets in particular which obviously as back packers we are not in the market for are all sold the same way. Each is describved as a "Berber Picasso" as they are all unique and then when we say we are travelling with backpacks they say "No problem - rolls up to the size of a cigarette packet" which of corse it doesnt but at least they are trying!
Our guide did get his own way when he led us to a pricey Restaurant Asmae for lunch where we ordered two set menus between the 4 of us and the 16 plates of salads and entrees was way too much before we even got our mains.
He did show us a few more sights but ditched us quite early and also just pointed us back to our hotel instead of taking us there. I think he had had enough of our stingy ways!
Still too full for tea so walked around a bit and Lisa and Greg bought a beanie and some slippers.
Decided that we had spent enough on Lunch for it to count as tea as well so just bought some fresh peas, roasted chestnuts and mint for tea and ate while we played cards.
Checked out of our beautiful Riad and took our bags to find left luggage. Train station - nogo. Bus station - nogo - even though botht he Lonley planet and the rough guide said - yesgo.
So we decided to take them with us as we set out for a day trip to Sefrou. After some confusion over price ( they wanted us to pay sixty - we wanted to pay 50 and in the end they charged us 40?!?) we caught a grand taxi with 7 in the car to sefrou 30 mins away.
The hotel charged us half a room rate (80dh) for half the day to keep our bags. Bit of a rip but now we were in Sefrou the choices were significantly limited!
Walked through the medina had very cheap lunch with the local police force before we walked out to what the Lonley PLanet describe as some 'modest cascades'. They were pretty but as predicted only good for about 20 mins so we decided to climbed the steep rocky hill on the other side. This made the trip worhwhile as once up ontop of the hill we strolled through a small berber village with friendly little kids and ahd a great view of the town.
Bought a bag of about 20 mandies for 4dh and went and sat in the park where the local little kids showed great interest in us and had a good laugh at doms name (which must mean something great in Arabic!) and played push each other onto leah and chatted with lisa (sort of) with the 4 words Lias had learnt out of the Lonley Planet!
The mandies got something going in leah. Taxi back to fes was interesting. For some reason our taxi driver would not take us to our restaurant but instead pointed us in the right direction (which of corse turned out to be the wrong direction!). Big walk in the wrong direction before petit taxi to la chiminèe (recommended by guy at meknes train station as place to try moroccan beer).
Our plan was to kill the time until the 0150 train to Marrakech. Leah made it through half a lemonade before a couple of trips to the toilet and then falling asleep in the corner of the restaurant (always a cheep drunk).
Tried the flag ang the stork, both good but after 4 each the service really dropped off, perhaps they are not used to people coming in for drinking sessions. After 8 beers with the free tapas which stopped coming our way after we didnt eat the cows knees we headed to the train station.
Got compartment all to ourselves which was great until the ticket inspector came around and
almost kicked us off after lisa threw out the receipt which turned out to be the ticket - not the 4 tickets we had for each of us?!? Spent about half an hour sometime in the middle of the night looking for this damn receipt which we didnt know we had to keep before deciding to plead our case in Arabic if he came back. End of story - I think we got away with it!
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